"And then when...I was sent to get help from paramedics, they didn't have any equipment with them, they didn't have any clearance to go into the tunnels, their communications seemed to have broken down."

The report also revealed that hundreds of people walked away from the scene without any details being taken - so were unlikely to have been offered trauma counselling.

Mr Barnes told BBC London there was no evidence that the failings had cost any lives on the day.

But he concluded: "London's emergency plans have been tested, practised and refined, but on July 7 it was clear that they ignored the needs of many individuals caught up in the attacks."

In a statement, the London Resilience Partnership, which represents the key emergency services, said: "The sheer scale and unique nature of events on 7 July mean that naturally there will be lessons to learn about our response.

"Some issues have already been recognised and acted upon, such as communications systems and problems with radios underground."

And Transport for London said it was investing nearly £2bn in a modern radio network which was being rolled out, line by line, on the Tube this year and next.

Lessons learned

The Metropolitan Police said it and the British Transport Police felt their radio systems worked well and they were able to work around the difficulties communicating underground.